Twelve

Thanks to Wikipedia for the definitions below. 12 is also the temperature in our house as the bloody central heating is broken until the man comes back with the parts on Monday :-(

- Twelve is a composite number, the smallest number with exactly six divisors, its proper divisors being 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6. Twelve is also a highly composite number, the next one being 24.
- Twelve is a superfactorial, being the product of the first three factorials.
- A twelve-sided polygon is a dodecagon. A twelve-faced polyhedron is a dodecahedron.
- Twelve is a pentagonal number.
- Twelve is the ninth Perrin number, preceded in the sequence by 5, 7, 10.
- Twelve is a sublime number, a number that has a perfect number of divisors, and the sum of its divisors is also a perfect number. Since there is a subset of 12's proper divisors that add up to 12 (all of them but with 4 excluded), 12 is a semiperfect number.
- Most calendar systems have twelve months in a year.
- The Western zodiac has twelve signs, as does the Chinese zodiac.
- The Chinese use a 12 years cycle for time-reckoning called Earthly Branches.
- There are twenty-four hours in a day in all, with twelve hours for a half a day. The hours are numbered from one to twelve for both the ante meridiem (a.m.) half of the day and the post meridiem (p.m.) half of the day. 12:00 after a.m. and before p.m. (in the middle of the day) is noon, and 12:00 after p.m. and before a.m. (in the middle of the night) is midnight. A new day is considered to start with the stroke of midnight. Furthermore, the basic units of time (60 seconds, 60 minutes, 24 hours) can all perfectly divide by twelve.
- In rugby union one of the centres, most often but not always the inside centre, wears the 12 shirt.
- The New Testament describes twelve apostles of Jesus; when Judas Iscariot was disgraced, a meeting was held (Acts) to add Matthias to complete the number twelve once more.
- In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, there is a Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
- The Book of Revelation 12:1 mentions a woman ? usually interpreted by Catholics as Virgin Mary, others interpret it as the nation of Israel ? wearing a crown of twelve stars (representing each of the twelve tribes of Israel), and there are 12,000 people sealed from each of the twelve tribes of Judah (144000).
- In Shi'a Islam, there are twelve Imams. These twelve early leaders of Islam are: Ali, Hasan, Husayn, and nine of Husayn's descendants.
- There are 12 days of Christmas. The song Twelve Days of Christmas came from the traditional practice of extending Yuletide celebrations over the twelve days from Christmas day to the eve of Epiphany; the period of thirteen days including Epiphany is sometimes known as Christmastide. Thus Twelfth Night is another name for the twelfth day of Christmas or January 5 (the eve of Epiphany).

> Other 12 blips

Have a good (warm) weekend all!

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LOTD: Tracey Flowerpot's dreamcatcher blip is lovely. I'm dreaming of central heating...